Tesla's board of directors drafted a staggeringly trillion-dollar compensatory incentive for CEO Elon Musk, CBS News reported.
The development was revealed in a regulatory disclosure made by the board to the Securities and Exchange Commission that was published Friday.
The electric vehicle brand has faced challenges this year. Musk's high-profile debut in American politics generated global backlash for Tesla, depressing sales and inciting acts of vandalism toward vehicles and charging stations.
Musk's sharp right turn was ill-timed; a slew of competitively priced, up-and-coming EVs leveraged the company's stumbles, cutting into Tesla's market dominance.
While cobalt, nickel, and lithium are among the valuable things necessary for Tesla to survive and be successful, the automaker appears to value something else above all else: Musk's undivided attention.
"We believe that Elon's singular vision is vital to navigating this critical inflection point," a letter to investors appended to the filing read. Tesla's continued success demands "a leader who is not only willing and capable but eager to meet this challenge," it continued.
"Tesla does not currently have a long-term CEO performance award in place to retain and incentivize Elon to focus his energies on Tesla and lead us through this pivotal moment in our history. It's time to change that," the board added.
A month prior to the filing, the board shared a letter about Musk's compensation to investors via X, and one common thread stood out in its remarks on the CEO's $29 billion compensation package in the form of 96 million unrestricted Tesla shares.
In addition to referring to Musk as "Elon" throughout, the board made no fewer than four variations of saying it wanted the CEO to "focus his energies" on Tesla. To that end, it argued that $29 billion ought to be sufficient to incentivize Musk to "focus his attention on Tesla" over the next two to five years.
It's unclear what, if any, effect Tesla's board had on Musk's focus with the previous pay package, but in its latest letter, it both sought and promised more to the CEO.
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Yes 👍 The letter pledged "about 423 million shares, which today have a value of $143 billion," to Musk, per CBS — if he led the company to its lofty goals.
The outlet indicated that Musk would qualify if Tesla's market cap grew eightfold over the next 10 years, to $8.5 trillion, with several additional performance caveats and benchmarks involving aspects of the business such as robotaxis.
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